A few days before the season opener against West Torrance, Bishop Montgomery girls basketball coach Alexa Johnson revealed that Delapina was going to serve as a co-captain with senior Dani Lee.

At 5-foot-4, Delapina plays with a fearless mindset, but now she was shouldering more responsibility, particularly as such a young captain.

"At that point, I knew I had to step up and become more of a leader," Delapina said. "In the beginning of the season, I wasn't much of a leader, but I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable.

"The girls definitely look up to Dani, and I think they're starting to look up to me too."

Delapina, the only returning starter from last season's squad, is quickly honing her leadership skills.

Delapina will certainly be a steadying force when Bishop Montgomery (20-7) makes a long haul to Templeton tonight to open the CIF-Southern Section Division IV-AA playoffs.

"She's not allowed to play like a sophomore," Bishop Montgomery sophomore guard Nao Shiato said. "She really does play like a senior.

"Christine and Dani really have the best attitudes on the team. They keep everyone going, even when we're all dying at practice."

Delapina's coming-of-age performance might have come against Redondo.

Bishop Montgomery struggled early and fell behind by double-digits, but the typically reserved Delapina started showing off a more vocal side and exuded a positive confidence.

"I just started talking more to my teammates, and I told them not to get their heads down and to move on to the next play if we made a mistake," said Delapina, who finished with 26 points against Redondo, attacking the lanes in a 76-65 comeback win. "If the girls are down, I'll try to do something like tickling them. I just want to cheer them up."

Lee, a homecoming queen and resident sharpshooter who has a senior savvy, said Delapina is quickly adjusting to life as a leader.

"It's really good because she's a sophomore," Lee said. "We needed people to step up because we lost so many starters from last year, and she's done a really good job doing that."

Delapina made an immediate impact on Johnson as an incoming ninth-grader.

"When she was coming in as an eighth-grader, she was playing with the JVs," Johnson said. "I watched two trips down the floor. She got into the help-side defense, she denied passes and even hit a 3-pointer.

"Yeah, I was putting her on varsity."

Delapina held her own as a freshman in 2011-12 on a senior-laden team, averaging 5.6 points, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals while helping Bishop Montgomery maintain its status as one of the area's premier programs.

This season, Delapina has taken it up another notch.

Delapina is averaging 9.5 points, 4.2 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. And her leadership skills are burgeoning.

"She's young, but she makes our team go," Johnson said. "She's smart, she has a good feel for the game and is so consistent. You can always count on her.

"On our team, you never know where the scoring will come from. It could be Dani (Lee) with her outside shooting or Chelsea (Lidy) with her athleticism or Lisa (Washington) or Tyler (Quinn) off the bench. But if Christine is out of the game, you always notice."

Johnson said she considers Delapina "an extension of myself." So Delapina often receives the brunt of the yelling from the vocal Johnson.

And Delapina also said she gets it from her father, Ryan Delapina, from the stands.

"I just try to make smart decisions and not get yelled at," Delapina said, laughing. "I get a little extra from my dad. But I try to not let it affect me. I take in what they say, not how they're saying it.

Ryan Delapina played basketball at North Torrance in the early 1990s. Her mother Jaime Derochea played soccer at Hawthorne and now lives in Alabama. She has not seen her daughter play basketball since Delapina was in seventh grade.

Delapina also has a 4-year-old brother and a 1-year-old sister. Her brother is a soccer player.

"I've been trying to teach him basketball, but he plays soccer," Delapina said. "I'm trying to change that."

Delapina said she wants to play college basketball and perhaps study physical therapy. She said she isn't going to let her size hold her back.